Newspaper Advertising

Here’s a simple way I came up with to draw attention to your newspaper advertising…

Have the graphic designer draw little squiggly marks in your ad.  Make it look like a pen or marker has been marking up the page.

One of my clients who responded to an ad like this said, “I thought my husband circled this ad with his pen.  So I called you!”

The point isn’t to be deceptive.  But you do want to draw attention to your newspaper ad.  Circle a key word.  Underline a couple phrases.  Put an arrow mark to point to a key benefit.  Mark it up, but don’t go crazy with it.  Make it look exciting.

The ad below brought my carpet cleaning business 22 calls in one day.  17 of those callers booked an appointment.  That is in a newspaper with only 80,000 circulation.  That’s pretty good.

It should look like news.

Why?  Always think about what your prospect is doing when receiving the media you are advertising in.  With newspaper, he is sitting on his sofa or at his kitchen table.  He’s reading the news–not wanting to be interupted with advertising.

So your job is to sneak in with a “newsy” headline.  In fact, make your entire ad look like an editorial.  This is often called an “advitorial” among direct marketing circles.

When your ad appears like an editorial, his guard is down.  He’s interested in reading some news. 

Does your product or service have something new or newsworthy to run an ad about? 

How about something like, “Local Cleaning Company Offers FREE Carpet Inspections.”  The ad then goes on to talk about why carpet is a problem to maintain.  Then it talks about how your company is the hero that solves this awful problem.

That’s news.  And the great thing is, you can take that news and alter it to promote your company.  No, it won’t be free like getting a press release run.  But at least the ad will run exactly the way you want it to.

Until later,

John Braun

Ad Hitman

Hello and welcome to the new newspaper advertising blog.

I’m John Braun.  I’ve been actively studying the art of newspaper advertising for twelve years.  I’ve been advertising in newspaper for eleven year.  And in that time, I’ve tested and ran over 200 newspaper ads for my small business. 

in addition, I’ve helped hundreds of cleaning companies all over the world improve the results in their newspaper advertising.

So join me now in this blog as we explore how to get GREAT results from small newspaper ads.  Bookmark this page and check back often.  I’ll be posting ad samples, videos, and audio tips on how to increase the results in your newspaper advertising.

Thanks,

John Braun

Ad Hitman for Hitman Advertiisng